Bristol Solitaire

Bristol Solitaire is a lesser known solitaire card game that begins with 24 cards being dealt into 8 piles of 3 cards each. Only the top card in each pile can be moved to another pile. Cards can be built down in the piles from King to Ace regardless of suit, or built up in the foundations from Ace to King by suit. The player wins when all 52 cards have been built up into the foundations.

How to play Bristol

When playing Bristol Solitaire 24 cards are dealt into 8 piles of 3 cards each. Only the top card can be moved from these piles, and can be used to build down the cards in the other piles without regard to suit. In other words, a pile that has a top card of 6 can have any 5 card moved from the top of another pile and placed on it. The foundations can be found on the right of the game screen and must be built up from Ace to King by suit. The reserve piles are located at the bottom of the game screen, and at any time the player may click on the deck and deal 3 additional cards into the waste piles. Only the top card in the reserve pile may be moved into the other piles or to the foundations. No cards from the 8 original piles may be moved into the reserve piles. The player completes the game when all 52 cards are sorted by suit into the foundations.

The Deck

After the initial 24 cards are dealt from the deck into the 8 columns, the remaining cards are all in the deck, which can be dealt out by clicking the deck icon at the bottom of the game screen. Clicking the deck deals out three cards, one into each of the three waste piles. Once you've dealt out all the cards that remain in your deck, you are not able to reset the deck from the waste piles like you can in other solitaire card games.